Understanding Lacerte diagnostic ref. 499

If the following diagnostic is generating in the Individual module when e-filing:

• At least one of the following fields must be present on an e-file return: total income, adjusted gross income, tax on income, total credits, total tax or total payments. (ref.# 499)

You need to have a nonzero amount in one of these fields in order to prevent an e-file rejection. If the taxpayer doesn’t have a nonzero for one of these fields, the return will need to be paper filed.

There may be no income or AGI present in the return because:

• There’s only nontaxable social security income on the return.
• No income has been entered on the return.
• The taxpayer is filing Form 2555, all income is excluded, and no tax payments were made.
  • This is essentially a $0 return, so it will have to be paper filed.
• You’re trying to e-file the extension and haven’t entered information for the regular tax return yet.